Despite two wins Wednesday, Yankees' offense not producing much

Andrew Mills/The Star-LedgerMark Teixeira strikes out against the Mets in the Subway Series. Teixeira is hitting .210.MINNEAPOLIS — The Yankees emerged from spring training as a great offensive machine, boasting a lineup so stacked, so balanced, so powerful, that it was best described as “circular.” Even if some of its parts failed to click at full power, the machine was built to hum along.

But in the past week, the machine has come to a grinding halt, leaving the Yankees to hope they have hit nothing more than a speed bump.

“We’re just in a bad stretch of bad baseball,” general manager Brian Cashman said earlier this week, after seeing his team score nine runs in three games against the Mets before 1-0 and 3-2 victories Wednesday against the Twins.

Yet, the Yankees have shown no signs of panic. That is especially evident in manager Joe Girardi’s commitment to keeping the same basic batting order intact.

“If every time you moved them in the order when they were struggling,” Girardi said, “you might just have to play musical chairs, pull names out of a hat.”

Still, the top of the Yankees’ lineup has been particularly vulnerable.

The website Baseball-Reference.com uses a statistic called sOPS+, which adjusts offensive statistics to reflect ballpark factors and make production levels easily comparable throughout the league.

According to those numbers, the Yankees rank just 10th and 12th in the American League in production from the second and third spots in the batting order. Those positions receive the most plate appearances.

That’s a problem of particular importance for the Yankees, who lean on a blend of on-base skills and power to produce runs. In their past seven games, however, they have hit just four home runs and have posted a slugging percentage (.387) that’s nearly 60 points below their season average (.443).

At least some of the issues can be traced to losing Nick Johnson. Since he went on the disabled list May 8, the Yankees haven’t found a fit in the two hole. Brett Gardner moved into the spot but has slumped since, posting a .315 on-base percentage in 15 starts as the No. 2 hitter, and was replaced by Nick Swisher, who hit the go-ahead homer in the ninth in Wednesday’s second game.

“Sometimes it seems like everything you put in play goes over somebody’s head or goes between a couple guys or falls in,” Gardner said. “And sometimes you hit it right to guys and don’t get good pitches to hit. That’s just part of it.”

The biggest void has been left by Mark Teixeira, who hits behind the team’s expected on-base threats and ahead of cleanup man Alex Rodriguez. Teixeira’s production is critical to the state of the machine.

“It’s the ebb and flows of the season,” said Teixeira, who is hitting just .210 and hasn’t topped .224 at any point this season. And in the past week, Juan Miranda’s two home runs — Teixeira has none — are the most among the Yankees’ first basemen.

However, that doesn’t concern Girardi, who saw Teixeira slump in the early part of last season but bounce back to hit 39 home runs and drive in 122 runs.

“I wouldn’t move him out of (his spot in) the lineup. I don’t have anybody else even close to consideration for the No. 3 spot,” Girardi said. “He’s exactly where he needs to be. We’ll just ride it out with him.”